Syria snipers 'play deadly game'

Pregnant women in Syria are being shot by snipers in a sickening war game in which their unborn babies appear to be used for target practice, according to a British surgeon.

David Nott, a vascular surgeon at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, spent five weeks volunteering in a Syrian hospital. He told ITV News: "It seemed to me that it was sort of a game they were having with each other and many times we would have the same wounds coming in every single day.

"One day we would have pregnant women brought in with gun shot wounds to the uterus, not only just one or two, but seven or eight, which meant to me that they must be targeting pregnant women".

Read: Syria snipers 'play deadly game'

In a video diary entry as part of his work with Syria Relief, a UK based charity coordinating a number of activities inside Syria, UK surgeon Dr David Nott, described the "intensely difficult" conditions medical staff were forced to work under.

Read: The brutal 'games' of bored snipers in Syria's deadlocked war

More: Syria Relief

Volunteers in the United States help understaffed hospitals in Syria through video internet video link-ups.

Due to the lack of trained staff in Syria’s devastated healthcare system, gravely ill patients are not able to get the level of supervision they need.

The camera, linked via the internet to a trained intensive care clinician, acts as a surrogate doctor.

Using the video link to the US, staff in the hospital in Syria are given advice on how they can best treat the patient.

One of Britain's top surgeons spent five weeks working in Syria's devastated healthcare system attempting to save the lives of the civilians caught up in the deadly conflict.

Throughout his time treating victims inside the warzone, he noticed a brutal pattern in terms of the injuries he treated - on different days, snipers would target victims in a deliberate pattern.

On one day he would have 7 or 8 pregnant women with gunshot wounds to their uterus, whilst on the next, his patients would all be have chest wounds and then the day after that everyone would have groin wounds.

The wounds, he said, showed how snipers would amuse themselves by targeting different people on different days in different ways. International Correspondent Bill Neely reports on the 'death games' said to be played in Syria's seemingly interminable war.

Warning: This report contains distressing images

Read: The brutal games of bored snipers in Syria's deadlocked war